Crisis in Australian football as FIFA takeover looms large

Bengaluru, November 30: Australian football has been plunged into a major crisis with a likely take over by FIFA on the cards after the failure of Football Federation of Australia (FFA) to meet the November 30 reforms deadline set by the game's global governing body.

FFA confirmed it had fallen short of the votes required to pass a resolution to expand its Congress, which elects members to the executive board.

Resolution to improve representation in FFA’s Congress narrowly fails | FFA https://t.co/0H0MeBJTpz

— Football Australia (@FFA) November 30, 2017

"FFA will now formally communicate the outcome to football's world governing body FIFA, which had instructed Australian football's stakeholders to agree on expansion of the Congress by today's date," said FFA chairman Steven Lowy.

It may be recalled that FIFA had imposed a November 30 deadline to expand FFA membership or it said it would recommend the establishment of a normalisation committee to the FIFA Council.

No breakthrough in FIFA-Australia talks

"We'll now talk to FIFA about what steps can now be taken to resolve this issue so that we've a larger, more representative Congress.

We've all been discussing and debating this for more than a year. We're disappointed that the members were unable to agree sufficiently on expansion of the congress for the measure to pass," added Lowy.

With Lowy's motion to create a more democratic governance model at the FFA congress falling short of the 75 per cent voting threshold, the door is open for the game's world governing body to carry out its intention to take over the running of the game in Australia.

Take over of the administration by the FIFA will certainly reflect poorly on the Socceroos, who have just qualified for the World Cup after a high-intensity inter-continental play-off tie against Honduras.